Novel approaches for ionizing gases to be ionized (which are occasionally also referred to as analytes below), which are able to complement or—depending on the application—even able to replace the standard processes for ionization with a hot filament or glow wire (electron ionization), are used in mass spectrometry. The disadvantages of the standard ionization are the high surrounding temperature of the filament, which is up to 2000° C. hot, and the ionization energy of typically approximately 70 eV, which is too high for most applications, particularly in organic chemistry (e.g. life sciences), and which leads to the generation of fragments, as well as the very high susceptibility of the filament in the case of high work pressures of typically more than approximately 10−4 mbar, which can lead to the filament “burning through”.
DE 10 2007 043 333 A1 has disclosed a method for treating and examining components, wherein a primary plasma beam generated in a cold atmospheric plasma source is used as an ignition source for a secondary plasma beam to be generated in a cavity to be conditioned or examined with a small diameter. To this end, a noble gas is guided through the cavity of the component in the direction of the primary plasma source. Here, the secondary plasma ignited by the primary plasma source propagates against the gas flow direction of the noble gas in the cavity of the component to be treated or examined.